Breaking Masquerade of Heroes

Chapter 15 ~ A Two-Faced Liar

"Based on the reports these fingerprints allegedly belong to Byleth..." Shuichi muttered. Tails' eyes widened in shock as Shuichi looked down at himself in so much emotion. Unsure as to why Byleth was involved with the messing with the alarm. Unless that happened prior to his arrest.

Tails asked, "But how?! Why would Byleth disable the alarms?! How come they were disabled in the first place?"

"Something is going on... either these were done for no reason prior to the arrest. Or Byleth broke out at some point..." Shuichi muttered. Shuichi rushed out of his room to go to the camera room. Tails followed him as Shuichi slid on over. He started going a few weeks back to see if any of the camera footage had aligned to what his fingerprints had mentioned.

Tails asked, "How would this even be the case if Byleth is in jail...?"

"That's what we're going to find out. Fingerprints are the most concrete piece of evidence we can gather, however; none of what is going on makes any remote sense," Shuichi continued. Tails looked at him with worry as Shuichi kept examining each suspicious video that was taken with the camera. He noticed one had Byleth in them, and so it was best to watch it. In the video Byleth appeared to be walking around, doing completely normal things.

Tails muttered, "Things are so... normal."

"That's the creepy thing..." Shuichi muttered. Neither one knew what to do but they were just dealing with it all. Something could happen but there was no telling.

Tails groaned, "Okay so is this-"

"Fingerprints are all unique. Yours are different from mine, and mine are different from Byleth's," Shuichi described. Tails stared at him as Shuichi rubbed his temples, "How about this, I'll inform you of details tomorrow as I investigate. You better get some rest."

Tails asked, "A-Are you sure you don't need-"

"I'll MANAGE..." Shuichi ordered. He seemed to be getting frustrated and Tails soon left his room. He walked through the halls to get his room. Seeing all the heroes getting ready for bed. His room and Sonic's were next to each other. Tails got ready for bed but now he was just paranoid of going asleep. Afraid that the same thing was going to happen again. But the alarm should be turned on now so things were going to be okay. Tails slowly started drifting off to sleep, forgetting what was going on.

It was late at night and someone was on patrol duty for the prisoners at night. Byleth was writing something on the piece of paper he had. Serving his time in jail in silence. He wasn't going to be there for too long but it was still a miserable experience. Byleth tapped his pencil trying to figure out what else he wanted to write. But couldn't think of much, it was going to be awkward to see all the heroes again after serving his time. But then an officer came walking over.

"Byleth, you have a visitor..."

"What?" Byleth asked. He got up and wondered if it was Chrom who wanted to talk to him. The officer walked over with Byleth and then he realized who was there, Shuichi. He groaned and sat down grabbing the phone. "What do you want now?"

Shuichi explained, "I need to know what you were doing prior to your arrest and the wedding. Some suspicious activity has been linked to you."

"What activity?"

"You were found walking around in the middle of the night. Potentially turning off the alarms for Kirby and Tails," Shuichi continued. He showed the camera footage that was found from the security cameras. Byleth watched it and was just confused. He didn't remember what happened that night but Shuichi wasn't going to take 'I don't know' for an answer.

Byleth asked, "Okay, what am I supposed to say to that when I don't remember anything?"

"You don't?"

"I literally don't this was several months ago. I would've told you what I DID know if I had any idea what was going on," Byleth explained. Shuichi looked at him with surprise. Byleth was actually being cooperative but he didn't remember anything. At least there was a change of heart.

Shuichi sighed, "So you don't remember. Do you remember... anything about alarms or anything?"

"No, I don't enter the room without permission. I think the fingerprints are from when it was installed," Byleth explained. Shuichi was just conflicted on how to feel. Maybe the fingerprints were old but why was Byleth not wearing gloves?

Shuichi muttered, "This is strange..."

"I wish I could tell you more but I don't," Byleth explained. Shuichi stared at him for a brief moment. Then he stood up and pushed his hair in. But he didn't put the phone in yet. Byleth stared at him, Shuichi stared back at him.

Shuichi mumbled, "You're lying to me."

"Huh?"

"You're lying to me..." Shuichi stared at him as Byleth suddenly became nervous. There was one thing clear and someone had caught onto what was going on. "I will ask you one more time... politely. What the HELL DID YOU DO!?"

Byleth explained, "OKAY! OKAY! Jeez... you just need to know THAT badly huh? I was messing around with the alarms to see what was going to happen if they didn't go off. This was done a few weeks ago and I guess it paid off. It was out of CURIOSITY."

"Curiosity that would have cost us! You're lucky there wasn't anything severely dangerous going on because that has SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES!" Shuichi ordered. Byleth stared at him and just rolled his eyes. Shuichi stared down at himself as he pulled his eyelids. He put away the phone and started walking away.

Byleth laughed, "YOU'RE AN IDIOT YOU KNOW THAT! I'LL BE OUT OF JAIL SOON!!" Shuichi left the police station and stared at his findings. He found something that was able to solve the issue but that was it. Shuichi looked up at the sky, the stars were bright in the night. Shuichi walked over to a bench and just watched the stars. Wondering about what was happening now.

Shuichi sighed, "The stars are beautiful... I want answers to what's going on but this shall manage just fine. I'll be okay..." He got up and walked back to the mansion. When he got there he saw someone still up. It was Tsumugi, she was looking at something. It was around 1 o'clock in the morning. Shuichi stared at her and then just went upstairs, completely ignoring her and just pretending she didn't exist. Tsumugi looked over and then just put the paper down.

"What the heck does Rowan want from me? He found my cosplays and wants me to do actual clothes?! I mean I can do it but..." Tsumugi muttered. She kept staring down at the paper but she didn't know how to feel. She felt like there was something else left. Tsumugi kept strolling around the mansion. Thinking to herself of what to do. She wanted to continue making cosplays but Rowan reaching out to her was a treat. She kept thinking of what to do.

But it was better to go to sleep. She went to her room but soon heard something. She looked around a bit and realized it had come from Shuichi's room. She went to peek inside but she couldn't see anything. But soon she realized what she was doing was wrong. Shuichi never wanted to interact with her so why should she want to get into his personal space? Tsumugi left the room and went to her room. Staring at her cosplay again.

She bit her bottom lip and looked down at herself. Was it a good idea to really work for Rowan? Byleth hated him but Byleth was in jail. She shook her head and just got ready to go to sleep.